Computer-based systems configured to provide actionable graphical user interfaces on different computing devices of different types

ABSTRACT

A method includes receiving a request to initiate a group gift indicating a gift date on which the group gift should be sent to a receiver of the gift. The method further includes determining, electronic devices to send invitations to contribute to the group gift and sending the invitations to the electronic devices. The invitations prompt a user to respond with a single action whether the user would like to contribute or not. The method further includes receiving responses from the electronic devices indicating an approval to contribute to the group gift or a refusal to contribute to the group gift. The method further includes initiating a physical gift purchase as part of the group gift and sending a message to a gift receiver electronic device that includes information about a monetary gift.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of and claims priority to U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 16/782,879, filed on Feb. 5, 2020 (now granted asU.S. Pat. No. 11,210,715), the disclosure of which is hereby expresslyincorporated by reference in its entirety.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains materialthat is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has noobjection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent documentor the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and TrademarkOffice patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyrightrights whatsoever. The following notice applies to the software and dataas described below and in drawings that form a part of this document:Copyright, Capital One Services, LLC., All Rights Reserved.

FIELD OF TECHNOLOGY

The present disclosure generally relates to computer-based systemsconfigured to provide actionable graphical user interfaces on computingdevices and methods of use thereof.

BACKGROUND OF TECHNOLOGY

A computer network platform/system may include a group of computers(e.g., clients, servers, etc.) and other computing hardware devices thatare linked together through one or more communication channels tofacilitate communication and/or resource-sharing, via one or morespecifically programmed graphical user interfaces (GUIs) of the presentdisclosure, among a wide range of users.

SUMMARY OF DESCRIBED SUBJECT MATTER

In some embodiments, the present disclosure provides an exemplarytechnically improved computer-based method that includes at least thefollowing elements of receiving, by one or more processors that are eachpart of a payment processing system, a request to initiate a group giftfrom an initiator electronic device. The request includes a gift date onwhich the group gift should be sent to a receiver of the gift. Themethod further includes determining, by the one or more processors, aplurality of mobile electronic devices to send a first type ofinvitations to contribute to the group gift and determining a pluralityof non-mobile electronic devices to send a second type of invitations tocontribute to the group gift. The method further includes sending, bythe one or more processors, the first type of invitations to theplurality of mobile electronic devices and the second type ofinvitations to the non-mobile electronic devices. Each of the first typeof invitations includes a push notification to an application (app) oneach of the plurality of mobile electronic devices or a text message toeach of the plurality of mobile electronic devices. The pushnotification or text message of each of the first type of invitationsprompts a user to respond with a single action whether the user wouldlike to contribute or not. The method further includes receiving, by theone or more processors, a first response from each of a first subset ofthe plurality of mobile electronic devices indicating an approval tocontribute to the group gift. The approval includes an authorization todeduct from or charge to an account associated with a respective one ofthe first subset of the plurality of mobile electronic devices. Themethod further includes receiving, by the one or more processors, asecond response from each of a second subset of the plurality of mobileelectronic devices indicating a refusal to contribute to the group gift.The method further includes sending, by the one or more processors,after a first predetermined amount of time after the invitations aresent or on a predetermined date indicated in the request to initiate thegroup gift, a reminder to each of a third subset of the plurality ofmobile electronic devices that have not responded to the first type ofinvitations. The method further includes initiating, by the one or moreprocessors, a second predetermined amount of time prior the gift date, aphysical gift purchase as part of the group gift using funds deductedfrom or charged to accounts associated with at least the first subset ofthe plurality of mobile electronic devices. The second predeterminedamount of time is configured to facilitate delivery of the physical giftpurchase to the receiver of the gift on or before the gift date. Themethod further includes sending, by the one or more processors, on thegift date, a message to a gift receiver electronic device includesinformation about a monetary gift. The monetary gift is a remainder ofthe funds deducted from or charged to accounts associated with at leastthe first subset of the plurality of mobile electronic devices that wasnot used for the physical gift purchase.

In some embodiments, the present disclosure provides an exemplarytechnically improved computer-based system that includes at least thefollowing components of a memory and at least one processor coupled tothe memory. The processor is configured to receive a request to initiatea group gift from an initiator electronic device. The request includes agift date on which the group gift should be sent to a receiver of thegift. The processor is further configured to determine a plurality ofmobile electronic devices to send invitations to contribute to the groupgift. The processor is further configured to send the invitations to theplurality of mobile electronic devices. Each of the invitations includesa push notification to an application (app) on each of the plurality ofmobile electronic devices or a text message to each of the plurality ofmobile electronic devices. The processor is further configured toreceive a first response from each of a first subset of the plurality ofmobile electronic devices indicating an approval to contribute to thegroup gift. The first response is sent as a result of a single action byeach user of the first subset of the plurality of mobile electronicdevices. The processor is further configured to receive a secondresponse from each of a second subset of the plurality of mobileelectronic devices indicating a refusal to contribute to the group gift.The processor is further configured to send, after a first predeterminedamount of time after the invitations are sent or on a predetermined dateindicated in the request to initiate the group gift, a reminder to eachof a third subset of the plurality of mobile electronic devices thathave not responded to the invitations. The processor is furtherconfigured to initiate, a second predetermined amount of time prior tothe gift date, a physical gift purchase as part of the group gift usingfunds deducted from or charged to accounts associated with at least thefirst subset of the plurality of mobile electronic devices. The secondpredetermined amount of time is configured to facilitate delivery of thephysical gift purchase to the receiver of the gift on or before the giftdate. The processor is further configured to send, on the gift date, amessage to a gift receiver electronic device including information abouta monetary gift. The monetary gift is a remainder of the funds deductedfrom or charged to accounts associated with at least the first subset ofthe plurality of mobile electronic devices that was not used for thephysical gift purchase.

In some embodiments, the present disclosure provides an exemplarytechnically improved computer-based non-transitory computer readablemedium that includes instructions stored thereon that, upon execution ofa computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations ofreceiving a request to initiate a group gift from an initiatorelectronic device. The request includes a gift date on which the groupgift should be sent to a receiver of the gift. The instructions furthercause the computing device to perform operations of determining aplurality of mobile electronic devices to send invitations to contributeto the group gift. The instructions further cause the computing deviceto perform operations of sending the invitations to the plurality ofmobile electronic devices. Each of the invitations includes a pushnotification to an application (app) on each of the plurality of mobileelectronic devices or a text message to each of the plurality of mobileelectronic devices. The instructions further cause the computing deviceto perform operations of receiving a first response from each of a firstsubset of the plurality of mobile electronic devices indicating anapproval to contribute to the group gift. The instructions further causethe computing device to perform operations of receiving a secondresponse from each of a second subset of the plurality of mobileelectronic devices indicating a refusal to contribute to the group gift.The instructions further cause the computing device to performoperations of sending, after a first predetermined amount of time afterthe invitations are sent or on a predetermined date indicated in therequest to initiate the group gift, a reminder to each of a third subsetof the plurality of mobile electronic devices that have not responded tothe invitations. The instructions further cause the computing device toperform operations of initiating, a second predetermined amount of timeprior to the gift date, a physical gift purchase as part of the groupgift using funds deducted from or charged to accounts associated with atleast the first subset of the plurality of mobile electronic devices.The second predetermined amount of time is configured to facilitatedelivery of the physical gift purchase to the receiver of the gift on orbefore the gift date. The instructions further cause the computingdevice to perform operations of sending, on the gift date, a message toa gift receiver electronic device including information about a monetarygift. The monetary gift is a remainder of the funds deducted from orcharged to accounts associated with at least the first subset of theplurality of mobile electronic devices that was not used for thephysical gift purchase.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Various embodiments of the present disclosure can be further explainedwith reference to the attached drawings, wherein like structures arereferred to by like numerals throughout the several views. The drawingsshown are not necessarily to scale, with emphasis instead generallybeing placed upon illustrating the principles of the present disclosure.Therefore, specific structural and functional details disclosed hereinare not to be interpreted as limiting, but merely as a representativebasis for teaching one skilled in the art to variously employ one ormore illustrative embodiments.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram depicting a computer-based system and platformin accordance with one or more embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram depicting another computer-based system andplatform in accordance with one or more embodiments of the presentdisclosure.

FIGS. 3 and 4 are diagrams illustrating implementations of cloudcomputing architecture/aspects with respect to which the disclosedtechnology may be specifically configured to operate, in accordance withone or more embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a system for initiating, collecting, anddelivering group gifts in accordance with one or more embodiments of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a process for initiating, collecting,and delivering group gifts in accordance with one or more embodiments ofthe present disclosure.

FIGS. 7A-7D are example user interfaces of a mobile electronic devicefor receiving a single action for contributing to a group gift inaccordance with one or more embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a process for delegatingresponsibility for responding to an invitation to participate in a groupgift in accordance with one or more embodiments of the presentdisclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Various detailed embodiments of the present disclosure, taken inconjunction with the accompanying figures, are disclosed herein;however, it is to be understood that the disclosed embodiments aremerely illustrative. In addition, each of the examples given inconnection with the various embodiments of the present disclosure isintended to be illustrative, and not restrictive.

Throughout the specification, the following terms take the meaningsexplicitly associated herein, unless the context clearly dictatesotherwise. The phrases “in one embodiment” and “in some embodiments” asused herein do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment(s), thoughit may. Furthermore, the phrases “in another embodiment” and “in someother embodiments” as used herein do not necessarily refer to adifferent embodiment, although it may. Thus, as described below, variousembodiments may be readily combined, without departing from the scope orspirit of the present disclosure.

In addition, the term “based on” is not exclusive and allows for beingbased on additional factors not described, unless the context clearlydictates otherwise. In addition, throughout the specification, themeaning of “a,” “an,” and “the” include plural references. The meaningof “in” includes “in” and “on.”

It is understood that at least one aspect/functionality of variousembodiments described herein can be performed in real-time and/ordynamically. As used herein, the term “real-time” is directed to anevent/action that can occur instantaneously or almost instantaneously intime when another event/action has occurred. For example, the “real-timeprocessing,” “real-time computation,” and “real-time execution” allpertain to the performance of a computation during the actual time thatthe related physical process (e.g., a user interacting with anapplication on a mobile device) occurs, in order that results of thecomputation can be used in guiding the physical process.

As used herein, the term “dynamically” and term “automatically,” andtheir logical and/or linguistic relatives and/or derivatives, mean thatcertain events and/or actions can be triggered and/or occur without anyhuman intervention. In some embodiments, events and/or actions inaccordance with the present disclosure can be in real-time and/or basedon a predetermined periodicity of at least one of: nanosecond, severalnanoseconds, millisecond, several milliseconds, second, several seconds,minute, several minutes, hourly, several hours, daily, several days,weekly, monthly, etc.

As used herein, the term “runtime” corresponds to any behavior that isdynamically determined during an execution of a software application orat least a portion of software application.

In some embodiments, exemplary inventive, specially programmed computingsystems/platforms with associated devices are configured to operate inthe distributed network environment, communicating with one another overone or more suitable data communication networks (e.g., the Internet,satellite, etc.) and utilizing one or more suitable data communicationprotocols/modes such as, without limitation, IPX/SPX, X.25, AX.25,AppleTalk™, TCP/IP (e.g., HTTP), Bluetooth™, near-field wirelesscommunication (NFC), RFID, Narrow Band Internet of Things (NBIOT), 3G,4G, 5G, GSM, GPRS, WiFi, WiMax, CDMA, satellite, ZigBee, and othersuitable communication modes. In some embodiments, the NFC can representa short-range wireless communications technology in which NFC-enableddevices are “swiped,” “bumped,” “tap” or otherwise moved in closeproximity to communicate. In some embodiments, the NFC could include aset of short-range wireless technologies, typically requiring a distanceof 10 cm or less. In some embodiments, the NFC may operate at 13.56 MHzon ISO/IEC 18000-3 air interface and at rates ranging from 106 kbit/s to424 kbit/s. In some embodiments, the NFC can involve an initiator and atarget; the initiator actively generates an RF field that can power apassive target. In some embodiment, this can enable NFC targets to takevery simple form factors such as tags, stickers, key fobs, or cards thatdo not require batteries. In some embodiments, the NFC's peer-to-peercommunication can be conducted when a plurality of NFC-enable devices(e.g., smartphones) within close proximity of each other.

The material disclosed herein may be implemented in software or firmwareor a combination of them or as instructions stored on a machine-readablemedium, which may be read and executed by one or more processors. Amachine-readable medium may include any medium and/or mechanism forstoring or transmitting information in a form readable by a machine(e.g., a computing device). For example, a machine-readable medium mayinclude read only memory (ROM); random access memory (RAM); magneticdisk storage media; optical storage media; flash memory devices;electrical, optical, acoustical or other forms of propagated signals(e.g., carrier waves, infrared signals, digital signals, etc.), andothers.

As used herein, the terms “computer engine” and “engine” identify atleast one software component and/or a combination of at least onesoftware component and at least one hardware component which aredesigned/programmed/configured to manage/control other software and/orhardware components (such as the libraries, software development kits(SDKs), objects, etc.).

Examples of hardware elements may include processors, microprocessors,circuits, circuit elements (e.g., transistors, resistors, capacitors,inductors, and so forth), integrated circuits, application specificintegrated circuits (ASIC), programmable logic devices (PLD), digitalsignal processors (DSP), field programmable gate array (FPGA), logicgates, registers, semiconductor device, chips, microchips, chip sets,and so forth. In some embodiments, the one or more processors may beimplemented as a Complex Instruction Set Computer (CISC) or ReducedInstruction Set Computer (RISC) processors; x86 instruction setcompatible processors, multi-core, or any other microprocessor orcentral processing unit (CPU). In various implementations, the one ormore processors may be dual-core processor(s), dual-core mobileprocessor(s), and so forth.

Examples of software may include software components, programs,applications, computer programs, application programs, system programs,machine programs, operating system software, middleware, firmware,software modules, routines, subroutines, functions, methods, procedures,software interfaces, application program interfaces (API), instructionsets, computing code, computer code, code segments, computer codesegments, words, values, symbols, or any combination thereof.Determining whether an embodiment is implemented using hardware elementsand/or software elements may vary in accordance with any number offactors, such as desired computational rate, power levels, heattolerances, processing cycle budget, input data rates, output datarates, memory resources, data bus speeds and other design or performanceconstraints.

One or more aspects of at least one embodiment may be implemented byrepresentative instructions stored on a machine-readable medium whichrepresents various logic within the processor, which when read by amachine causes the machine to fabricate logic to perform the techniquesdescribed herein. Such representations, known as “IP cores” may bestored on a tangible, machine readable medium and supplied to variouscustomers or manufacturing facilities to load into the fabricationmachines that make the logic or processor. Of note, various embodimentsdescribed herein may, of course, be implemented using any appropriatehardware and/or computing software languages (e.g., C++, Objective-C,Swift, Java, JavaScript, Python, Perl, QT, etc.).

In some embodiments, one or more of exemplary inventive computer-basedsystems/platforms, exemplary inventive computer-based devices, and/orexemplary inventive computer-based components of the present disclosuremay include or be incorporated, partially or entirely into at least onepersonal computer (PC), laptop computer, ultra-laptop computer, tablet,touch pad, portable computer, handheld computer, palmtop computer,personal digital assistant (PDA), cellular telephone, combinationcellular telephone/PDA, television, smart device (e.g., smart phone,smart tablet or smart television), mobile internet device (MID),messaging device, data communication device, and so forth.

As used herein, term “server” should be understood to refer to a servicepoint which provides processing, database, and communication facilities.By way of example, and not limitation, the term “server” can refer to asingle, physical processor with associated communications and datastorage and database facilities, or it can refer to a networked orclustered complex of processors and associated network and storagedevices, as well as operating software and one or more database systemsand application software that support the services provided by theserver. Cloud components (e.g., FIGS. 3 and 4) and cloud servers areexamples.

In some embodiments, as detailed herein, one or more of exemplaryinventive computer-based systems/platforms, exemplary inventivecomputer-based devices, and/or exemplary inventive computer-basedcomponents of the present disclosure may obtain, manipulate, transfer,store, transform, generate, and/or output any digital object and/or dataunit (e.g., from inside and/or outside of a particular application) thatcan be in any suitable form such as, without limitation, a file, acontact, a task, an email, a tweet, a map, an entire application (e.g.,a calculator), etc. In some embodiments, as detailed herein, one or moreof exemplary inventive computer-based systems/platforms, exemplaryinventive computer-based devices, and/or exemplary inventivecomputer-based components of the present disclosure may be implementedacross one or more of various computer platforms such as, but notlimited to: (1) AmigaOS, AmigaOS 4; (2) FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD; (3)Linux; (4) Microsoft Windows; (5) OpenVMS; (6) OS X (Mac OS); (7) OS/2;(8) Solaris; (9) Tru64 UNIX; (10) VM; (11) Android; (12) Bada; (13)BlackBerry OS; (14) Firefox OS; (15) Ios; (16) Embedded Linux; (17) PalmOS; (18) Symbian; (19) Tizen; (20) WebOS; (21) Windows Mobile; (22)Windows Phone; (23) Adobe AIR; (24) Adobe Flash; (25) Adobe Shockwave;(26) Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless (BREW); (27) Cocoa (API);(28) Cocoa Touch; (29) Java Platforms; (30) JavaFX; (31) JavaFX Mobile;(32) Microsoft XNA; (33) Mono; (34) Mozilla Prism, XUL and XULRunner;(35) .NET Framework; (36) Silverlight; (37) Open Web Platform; (38)Oracle Database; (39) Qt; (40) SAP NetWeaver; (41) Smartface; (42) Vexi;and/or (43) Windows Runtime.

In some embodiments, exemplary inventive computer-basedsystems/platforms, exemplary inventive computer-based devices, and/orexemplary inventive computer-based components of the present disclosuremay be configured to utilize hardwired circuitry that may be used inplace of or in combination with software instructions to implementfeatures consistent with principles of the disclosure. Thus,implementations consistent with principles of the disclosure are notlimited to any specific combination of hardware circuitry and software.For example, various embodiments may be embodied in many different waysas a software component such as, without limitation, a stand-alonesoftware package, a combination of software packages, or it may be asoftware package incorporated as a “tool” in a larger software product.

For example, exemplary software specifically programmed in accordancewith one or more principles of the present disclosure may bedownloadable from a network, for example, a website, as a stand-aloneproduct or as an add-in package for installation in an existing softwareapplication. For example, exemplary software specifically programmed inaccordance with one or more principles of the present disclosure mayalso be available as a client-server software application, or as aweb-enabled software application. For example, exemplary softwarespecifically programmed in accordance with one or more principles of thepresent disclosure may also be embodied as a software package installedon a hardware device.

In some embodiments, exemplary inventive computer-basedsystems/platforms, exemplary inventive computer-based devices, and/orexemplary inventive computer-based components of the present disclosuremay be configured to handle numerous concurrent users that may be, butis not limited to, at least 100 (e.g., but not limited to, 100-999), atleast 1,000 (e.g., but not limited to, 1,000-9,999), at least 10,000(e.g., but not limited to, 10,000-99,999), at least 100,000 (e.g., butnot limited to, 100,000-999,999), at least 1,000,000 (e.g., but notlimited to, 1,000,000-9,999,999), at least 10,000,000 (e.g., but notlimited to, 10,000,000-99,999,999), at least 100,000,000 (e.g., but notlimited to, 100,000,000-999,999,999), at least 1,000,000,000 (e.g., butnot limited to, 1,000,000,000-10,000,000,000).

In some embodiments, exemplary inventive computer-basedsystems/platforms, exemplary inventive computer-based devices, and/orexemplary inventive computer-based components of the present disclosuremay be configured to output to distinct, specifically programmedgraphical user interface implementations of the present disclosure(e.g., a desktop, a web app., etc.). In various implementations of thepresent disclosure, a final output may be displayed on a displayingscreen which may be, without limitation, a screen of a computer, ascreen of a mobile device, or the like. In various implementations, thedisplay may be a holographic display. In various implementations, thedisplay may be a transparent surface that may receive a visualprojection. Such projections may convey various forms of information,images, and/or objects. For example, such projections may be a visualoverlay for a mobile augmented reality (MAR) application.

In some embodiments, exemplary inventive computer-basedsystems/platforms, exemplary inventive computer-based devices, and/orexemplary inventive computer-based components of the present disclosuremay be configured to be utilized in various applications which mayinclude, but not limited to, gaming, mobile-device games, video chats,video conferences, live video streaming, video streaming and/oraugmented reality applications, mobile-device messenger applications,and others similarly suitable computer-device applications.

As used herein, the term “mobile electronic device,” or the like, mayrefer to any portable electronic device that may or may not be enabledwith location tracking functionality (e.g., MAC address, InternetProtocol (IP) address, or the like). For example, a mobile electronicdevice can include, but is not limited to, a mobile phone, PersonalDigital Assistant (PDA), Blackberry™, Pager, Smartphone, or any otherreasonable mobile electronic device.

As used herein, terms “proximity detection,” “locating,” “locationdata,” “location information,” and “location tracking” refer to any formof location tracking technology or locating method that can be used toprovide a location of, for example, a particular computingdevice/system/platform of the present disclosure and/or any associatedcomputing devices, based at least in part on one or more of thefollowing techniques/devices, without limitation: accelerometer(s),gyroscope(s), Global Positioning Systems (GPS); GPS accessed usingBluetooth™; GPS accessed using any reasonable form of wireless and/ornon-wireless communication; WiFi™ server location data; Bluetooth™ basedlocation data; triangulation such as, but not limited to, network basedtriangulation, WiFi™ server information based triangulation, Bluetooth™server information based triangulation; Cell Identification basedtriangulation, Enhanced Cell Identification based triangulation,Uplink-Time difference of arrival (U-TDOA) based triangulation, Time ofarrival (TOA) based triangulation, Angle of arrival (AOA) basedtriangulation; techniques and systems using a geographic coordinatesystem such as, but not limited to, longitudinal and latitudinal based,geodesic height based, Cartesian coordinates based; Radio FrequencyIdentification such as, but not limited to, Long range RFID, Short rangeRFID; using any form of RFID tag such as, but not limited to active RFIDtags, passive RFID tags, battery assisted passive RFID tags; or anyother reasonable way to determine location. For ease, at times the abovevariations are not listed or are only partially listed; this is in noway meant to be a limitation.

As used herein, terms “cloud,” “Internet cloud,” “cloud computing,”“cloud architecture,” and similar terms correspond to at least one ofthe following: (1) a large number of computers connected through areal-time communication network (e.g., Internet); (2) providing theability to run a program or application on many connected computers(e.g., physical machines, virtual machines (VMs)) at the same time; (3)network-based services, which appear to be provided by real serverhardware, and are in fact served up by virtual hardware (e.g., virtualservers), simulated by software running on one or more real machines(e.g., allowing to be moved around and scaled up (or down) on the flywithout affecting the end user). Examples of such cloud components areshown in FIGS. 3 and 4.

In some embodiments, the exemplary inventive computer-basedsystems/platforms, the exemplary inventive computer-based devices,and/or the exemplary inventive computer-based components of the presentdisclosure may be configured to securely store and/or transmit data byutilizing one or more of encryption techniques (e.g., private/public keypair, Triple Data Encryption Standard (3DES), block cipher algorithms(e.g., IDEA, RC2, RCS, CAST and Skipjack), cryptographic hash algorithms(e.g., MD5, RIPEMD-160, RTRO, SHA-1, SHA-2, Tiger (TTH), WHIRLPOOL,RNGs).

The aforementioned examples are, of course, illustrative and notrestrictive.

As used herein, the term “user” shall have a meaning of at least oneuser. In some embodiments, the terms “user”, “subscriber” “consumer” or“customer” should be understood to refer to a user of an application orapplications as described herein and/or a consumer of data supplied by adata provider. By way of example, and not limitation, the terms “user”or “subscriber” can refer to a person who receives data provided by thedata or service provider over the Internet in a browser session, or canrefer to an automated software application which receives the data andstores or processes the data.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram depicting a computer-based system and platformin accordance with one or more embodiments of the present disclosure.However, not all of these components may be required to practice one ormore embodiments, and variations in the arrangement and type of thecomponents may be made without departing from the spirit or scope ofvarious embodiments of the present disclosure. In some embodiments, theexemplary inventive computing devices and/or the exemplary inventivecomputing components of the exemplary computer-based system/platform 100may be configured to manage a large number of members and/or concurrenttransactions, as detailed herein. In some embodiments, the exemplarycomputer-based system/platform 100 may be based on a scalable computerand/or network architecture that incorporates varies strategies forassessing the data, caching, searching, and/or database connectionpooling. An example of the scalable architecture is an architecture thatis capable of operating multiple servers.

In some embodiments, referring to FIG. 1, members 102-104 (e.g.,clients) of the exemplary computer-based system/platform 100 may includevirtually any computing device capable of receiving and sending amessage over a network (e.g., cloud network), such as network 105, toand from another computing device, such as servers 106 and 107, eachother, and the like. In some embodiments, the member devices 102-104 maybe personal computers, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based orprogrammable consumer electronics, network PCs, and the like. In someembodiments, one or more member devices within member devices 102-104may include computing devices that typically connect using a wirelesscommunications medium such as cell phones, smart phones, pagers, walkietalkies, radio frequency (RF) devices, infrared (IR) devices, CBs,integrated devices combining one or more of the preceding devices, orvirtually any mobile computing device, and the like. In someembodiments, one or more member devices within member devices 102-104may be devices that are capable of connecting using a wired or wirelesscommunication medium such as a PDA, POCKET PC, wearable computer, alaptop, tablet, desktop computer, a netbook, a video game device, apager, a smart phone, an ultra-mobile personal computer (UMPC), and/orany other device that is equipped to communicate over a wired and/orwireless communication medium (e.g., NFC, RFID, NBIOT, 3G, 4G, 5G, GSM,GPRS, WiFi, WiMax, CDMA, satellite, ZigBee, etc.). In some embodiments,one or more member devices within member devices 102-104 may include mayrun one or more applications, such as Internet browsers, mobileapplications, voice calls, video games, videoconferencing, and email,among others. In some embodiments, one or more member devices withinmember devices 102-104 may be configured to receive and to send webpages, and the like. In some embodiments, an exemplary specificallyprogrammed browser application of the present disclosure may beconfigured to receive and display graphics, text, multimedia, and thelike, employing virtually any web based language, including, but notlimited to Standard Generalized Markup Language (SMGL), such asHyperText Markup Language (HTML), a wireless application protocol (WAP),a Handheld Device Markup Language (HDML), such as Wireless MarkupLanguage (WML), WMLScript, XML, JavaScript, and the like. In someembodiments, a member device within member devices 102-104 may bespecifically programmed by either Java, .Net, QT, C, C++ and/or othersuitable programming language. In some embodiments, one or more memberdevices within member devices 102-104 may be specifically programmedinclude or execute an application to perform a variety of possibletasks, such as, without limitation, messaging functionality, browsing,searching, playing, streaming or displaying various forms of content,including locally stored or uploaded messages, images and/or video,and/or games.

In some embodiments, the exemplary network 105 may provide networkaccess, data transport and/or other services to any computing devicecoupled to it. In some embodiments, the exemplary network 105 mayinclude and implement at least one specialized network architecture thatmay be based at least in part on one or more standards set by, forexample, without limitation, Global System for Mobile communication(GSM) Association, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), and theWorldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) forum. In someembodiments, the exemplary network 105 may implement one or more of aGSM architecture, a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) architecture, aUniversal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) architecture, and anevolution of UMTS referred to as Long Term Evolution (LTE). In someembodiments, the exemplary network 105 may include and implement, as analternative or in conjunction with one or more of the above, a WiMAXarchitecture defined by the WiMAX forum. In some embodiments and,optionally, in combination of any embodiment described above or below,the exemplary network 105 may also include, for instance, at least oneof a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), the Internet,a virtual LAN (VLAN), an enterprise LAN, a layer 3 virtual privatenetwork (VPN), an enterprise IP network, or any combination thereof. Insome embodiments and, optionally, in combination of any embodimentdescribed above or below, at least one computer network communicationover the exemplary network 105 may be transmitted based at least in parton one of more communication modes such as but not limited to: NFC,RFID, Narrow Band Internet of Things (NBIOT), ZigBee, 3G, 4G, 5G, GSM,GPRS, WiFi, WiMax, CDMA, satellite and any combination thereof. In someembodiments, the exemplary network 105 may also include mass storage,such as network attached storage (NAS), a storage area network (SAN), acontent delivery network (CDN) or other forms of computer or machinereadable media.

In some embodiments, the exemplary server 106 or the exemplary server107 may be a web server (or a series of servers) running a networkoperating system, examples of which may include but are not limited toMicrosoft Windows Server, Novell NetWare, or Linux. In some embodiments,the exemplary server 106 or the exemplary server 107 may be used forand/or provide cloud and/or network computing. Although not shown inFIG. 1, in some embodiments, the exemplary server 106 or the exemplaryserver 107 may have connections to external systems like email, SMSmessaging, text messaging, ad content providers, etc. Any of thefeatures of the exemplary server 106 may be also implemented in theexemplary server 107 and vice versa.

In some embodiments, one or more of the exemplary servers 106 and 107may be specifically programmed to perform, in non-limiting example, asauthentication servers, search servers, email servers, social networkingservices servers, SMS servers, IM servers, MMS servers, exchangeservers, photo-sharing services servers, advertisement providingservers, financial/banking-related services servers, travel servicesservers, or any similarly suitable service-base servers for users of themember computing devices 101-104.

In some embodiments and, optionally, in combination of any embodimentdescribed above or below, for example, one or more exemplary computingmember devices 102-104, the exemplary server 106, and/or the exemplaryserver 107 may include a specifically programmed software module thatmay be configured to send, process, and receive information using ascripting language, a remote procedure call, an email, a tweet, ShortMessage Service (SMS), Multimedia Message Service (MMS), instantmessaging (IM), internet relay chat (IRC), mIRC, Jabber, an applicationprogramming interface, Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) methods,Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA), HTTP (HypertextTransfer Protocol), REST (Representational State Transfer), or anycombination thereof.

FIG. 2 depicts a block diagram of another exemplary computer-basedsystem/platform 200 in accordance with one or more embodiments of thepresent disclosure. However, not all of these components may be requiredto practice one or more embodiments, and variations in the arrangementand type of the components may be made without departing from the spiritor scope of various embodiments of the present disclosure. In someembodiments, the member computing devices 202 a, 202 b thru 202 n showneach at least includes a computer-readable medium, such as arandom-access memory (RAM) 208 coupled to a processor 210 or FLASHmemory. In some embodiments, the processor 210 may executecomputer-executable program instructions stored in memory 208. In someembodiments, the processor 210 may include a microprocessor, an ASIC,and/or a state machine. In some embodiments, the processor 210 mayinclude, or may be in communication with, media, for examplecomputer-readable media, which stores instructions that, when executedby the processor 210, may cause the processor 210 to perform one or moresteps described herein. In some embodiments, examples ofcomputer-readable media may include, but are not limited to, anelectronic, optical, magnetic, or other storage or transmission devicecapable of providing a processor, such as the processor 210 of client202 a, with computer-readable instructions. In some embodiments, otherexamples of suitable media may include, but are not limited to, a floppydisk, CD-ROM, DVD, magnetic disk, memory chip, ROM, RAM, an ASIC, aconfigured processor, all optical media, all magnetic tape or othermagnetic media, or any other medium from which a computer processor canread instructions. Also, various other forms of computer-readable mediamay transmit or carry instructions to a computer, including a router,private or public network, or other transmission device or channel, bothwired and wireless. In some embodiments, the instructions may comprisecode from any computer-programming language, including, for example, C,C++, Visual Basic, Java, Python, Perl, JavaScript, and etc.

In some embodiments, member computing devices 202 a-n may also comprisea number of external or internal devices such as a mouse, a CD-ROM, DVD,a physical or virtual keyboard, a display, or other input or outputdevices. In some embodiments, examples of member computing devices 202a-n (e.g., clients) may be any type of processor-based platforms thatare connected to a network 206 such as, without limitation, personalcomputers, digital assistants, personal digital assistants, smartphones, pagers, digital tablets, laptop computers, Internet appliances,and other processor-based devices. In some embodiments, member computingdevices 202 a-n may be specifically programmed with one or moreapplication programs in accordance with one or moreprinciples/methodologies detailed herein. In some embodiments, membercomputing devices 202 a-n may operate on any operating system capable ofsupporting a browser or browser-enabled application, such as Microsoft™,Windows™, and/or Linux. In some embodiments, member computing devices202 a-n shown may include, for example, personal computers executing abrowser application program such as Microsoft Corporation's InternetExplorer™, Apple Computer, Inc.'s Safari™, Mozilla Firefox, and/orOpera. In some embodiments, through the member computing client devices202 a-n, users, 212 a-n, may communicate over the exemplary network 206with each other and/or with other systems and/or devices coupled to thenetwork 206. As shown in FIG. 2, exemplary server devices 204 and 213may be also coupled to the network 206. In some embodiments, one or moremember computing devices 202 a-n may be mobile clients.

In some embodiments, at least one database of exemplary databases 207and 2015 may be any type of database, including a database managed by adatabase management system (DBMS). In some embodiments, an exemplaryDBMS-managed database may be specifically programmed as an engine thatcontrols organization, storage, management, and/or retrieval of data inthe respective database. In some embodiments, the exemplary DBMS-manageddatabase may be specifically programmed to provide the ability to query,backup and replicate, enforce rules, provide security, compute, performchange and access logging, and/or automate optimization. In someembodiments, the exemplary DBMS-managed database may be chosen fromOracle database, IBM DB2, Adaptive Server Enterprise, FileMaker,Microsoft Access, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL, and a NoSQLimplementation. In some embodiments, the exemplary DBMS-managed databasemay be specifically programmed to define each respective schema of eachdatabase in the exemplary DBMS, according to a particular database modelof the present disclosure which may include a hierarchical model,network model, relational model, object model, or some other suitableorganization that may result in one or more applicable data structuresthat may include fields, records, files, and/or objects. In someembodiments, the exemplary DBMS-managed database may be specificallyprogrammed to include metadata about the data that is stored.

As also shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, some embodiments of the disclosedtechnology may also include and/or involve one or more cloud components225, which are shown grouped together in the drawing for sake ofillustration, though may be distributed in various ways as known in theart. Cloud components 225 may include one or more cloud services such assoftware applications (e.g., queue, etc.), one or more cloud platforms(e.g., a Web front-end, etc.), cloud infrastructure (e.g., virtualmachines, etc.), and/or cloud storage (e.g., cloud databases, etc.).

According to some embodiments shown by way of one example in FIG. 4, theexemplary inventive computer-based systems/platforms, the exemplaryinventive computer-based devices, components and media, and/or theexemplary inventive computer-implemented methods of the presentdisclosure may be specifically configured to operate in or with cloudcomputing/architecture such as, but not limiting to: infrastructure aservice (IaaS) 410, platform as a service (PaaS) 408, and/or software asa service (SaaS) 406. FIGS. 3 and 4 illustrate schematics of exemplaryimplementations of the cloud computing/architecture(s) in which theexemplary inventive computer-based systems/platforms, the exemplaryinventive computer-implemented methods, and/or the exemplary inventivecomputer-based devices, components and/or media of the presentdisclosure may be specifically configured to operate.

Described herein are methods, systems, computer readable media, etc. forinitiating, collecting, and delivering group gifts. Various embodimentsdescribed herein include technical aspects that reduce the number ofclicks and/or actions taken by users to initiate, collect, and deliver agroup gift. Likewise, reducing the number of clicks and/or actions takenby users of the embodiments described herein allows the users to moreefficiently cause a group gift to be initiated, collected, anddelivered. In addition, the backend systems, networks, servers, mobileelectronic devices, etc. that are used to implement the methods,systems, computer readable media, etc. for initiating, collecting, anddelivering group gifts may be taxed or used to a lesser degree becauseof the reduced interactions and clicks by a user.

For example, according to the embodiments described herein, participantsin a group gift who wish to contribute to a group gift may contributevia a single interaction with a mobile electronic device. This reducedinteraction is possible because of technical aspects of the embodimentsdescribed herein. Previously, in order to contribute to a group gift, aninitiator of the gift may have to physically collect cash fromcontributors (another problem is some contributors may want change),collect checks from contributors (another problem is that checks mayneed to be cashed by the initiator), or secure promises from others topay that must be followed up on. These methods of collecting fromcontributors is not only difficult and time consuming, but are difficultfrom a technical standpoint to reconcile into a single gift. That is, itis difficult for an initiator of a group gift to combine cash, checks,promises to pay, and other potential modes of payment into a single giftfor the receiver of the gift. Providing an opportunity for a contributorto contribute to a group gift with a single action on a mobileelectronic device saves much time and effort on the part of theinitiator and the contributor.

Additionally, utilizing the single action for contributing as describedherein solves technical problems that are presented by collectingcontributions to a group gift through electronic means. For example,money may be shared through various types of sharing apps, such asZelle™ Venmo™, Cashapp™, etc. Such apps may be utilized to collectcontributions for a group gift. However, doing so requires thesolicitation of such contributions individually, either in person,through a cash sharing app, or through some other electronic means ofcommunication to solicit the contributions. Initiators and/orcontributors may also have to share account or contact information withone another in order to solicit and/or receive the contributions.

Facilitating contribution to a group gift such that an initiator mayeasily send out solicitations and contributors may contribute with asingle action through their respective mobile electronic devices asdescribed herein solves technological problems with soliciting andreceiving electronic contributions for a group gift—streamlining userinteraction with a mobile electronic device and reducing the extent towhich the resources of the mobile electronic device are used to solicitand/or contribute to a group gift—with technological solutionsnecessarily rooted in computer technology. For example, battery life andusage is a common concern for mobile electronic devices. Using theembodiment described herein, persons using a mobile electronic device tosolicit contributions to a group gift and/or contribute to a group giftwill use their mobile electronic device less, thereby preserving batterylife. For example, as described herein, a contribution for a group giftmay be solicited via a text message or push notification sent to amobile electronic device. The user of the mobile electronic device mayrespond to the text message or push notification with a single action,minimizing the amount of time the user spends contributing the giftusing the mobile electronic device and thereby preserving battery life.A relationship between a financial/bank account of the user of themobile electronic device and the mobile electronic device itself mayalso be established before the text message or push notification issent. In this way, the single action performed by the user with themobile electronic device to respond to the solicitation also authorizesa deduction of funds from the users financial/bank account forcontributing to the group gift. This taxes the mobile electronicdevice's processing capabilities and battery life less because the useris not required to log in to a financial app, enter account information,enter information related to the initiator of the gift or the receiverof the gift, etc.

In addition to taxing the battery and computing resources of the mobileelectronic device less, the single interaction of the user also taxesnetwork and backend resources less. For example, logging onto anelectronic funds sharing app, specifying a receiver of funds (thesolicitor of the group gift and/or the receiver of the group gift),entering an amount of funds to transfer, etc. all require communicationbetween the mobile electronic device and one or more servers/backenddevices. These communications all tax the computing and bandwidthresources of not only the one or more servers/backend devices, but alsothe communication networks that allow the mobile electronic device tocommunicate with the one or more servers/backend devices. Similarly, ifcloud computing networks/devices are used instead of or in combinationwith other servers/backend devices, those resources may be similarlytaxed by increased communications between mobile electronic devices andthe cloud computing resources.

Similarly, computing resources may also be preserved using theembodiments described herein because reminders for contributing to agroup gift may be reduced. The single action taken by a user on theirelectronic device may be, instead of an authorization to contribute tothe group gift, a refusal to contribute to the group gift. When a user,via their electronic device, refuses or declines to participate in agroup gift, that user and their associated device(s) may no longer besent any reminders relating to the group gift. That the user can refusevia a single action reduces the resources taxed of the electronicdevice, and sending fewer reminders total by removing certainusers/devices from a reminder reduces use of network and backend/serverresources used to send out reminders.

Another technological problem solved by the various embodimentsdescribed herein is the problem of matching an amount of moneycontributed for a group gift to a physical gift. For example, it may bedifficult to find a physical gift that costs the precise amount of moneycollected by the initiator. Further complicating this problem is thatthe initiator may not know how much money they will be able to collectuntil at or just before the moment the initiator looks to purchase thephysical gift. Another problem is what to do with the money left overafter purchasing a physical gift. According to the embodiments describedherein, a physical gift purchase may be automatically determined forwhich there is enough money. That determination may be made in closeproximity to the actual purchase of the physical gift, so that it isknown exactly how much money has been contributed and is thereforeavailable for purchasing a group gift. The physical gift may also beautomatically purchased/ordered at a time sufficient to allow deliveryof the physical gift to the receiver, but not more. In this way, amaximum amount of time may be used to wait for contributors to respondto invitations to contribute and for reminders to be sent such that morefunds may be collected to use for a physical gift. In addition, theembodiments herein provide a technological solution for dealing withexcess funds beyond what is required to purchase the physical gift. Inparticular, the excess funds may be automatically transferred to anaccount of the receiver, given to the receiver as a gift card, orotherwise be automatically transferred to the receiver, such that theinitiator of the gift does not need to determine how to use, refund, orotherwise transfer the excess funds.

These embodiments, including the problems and solutions describedherein, provide for improved functioning of mobile electronic devices,network resources, and back end servers (including cloud computingresources). For example, according to the various techniques describedherein, a database, lookup table, or similar data structure ofrelationships between a user, their financial account(s), and theirelectronic device(s) (including, e.g., information about how tocommunicate with those devices such as phone numbers, user names,internet protocol (IP) addresses, media access control (MAC) address, orother type of identifying information used to communicate with a device)may be used to facilitate efficient inviting of contributors tocontribute to a group gift and to facilitate efficient contributions tothe group gift itself. These stored relationships may facilitateefficient contributions to a group gift by reducing how computing andnetworking resources are taxed because a contributor does not have toenter account information, a receiver of the gift, and/or the initiatorof the group gift each time the user wishes to contribute to a groupgift. Instead, the user may have previously set up an app forcontributing to a group gift or otherwise authorized deductions fromtheir financial account to contribute to a group gift such that they canauthorize participation in a group gift (and thereby authorize adeduction from their associated financial account) with the singleaction described herein.

A lookup table, database, etc. may also include relationships betweenusers. For example, relationships between users may include users whohave one another in their contact lists, have been a part of group giftsbefore, have invited each other to a group gift before, or any otherpreexisting relationship between users. This lookup table, database,etc. may be stored on an initiator's electronic device or on a networkstorage device such as a server. These preexisting relationships mayfurther facilitate efficient invitations to participate in a group giftby reducing how computing and networking resources are taxed because aninitiator may have preexisting relationships with potential contributorsto the gift. Accordingly, those who are to receive an invitation tocontribute may be easily identified and selected by an initiator from acommon contacts list with less information than would be necessary ifthe preexisting relationship was not established. For example, aninitiator may invite someone by only identifying their name because thatinitiator may only have a preexisting relationship with one person ofthat name. Similarly, potential contributors may be stored in database,lookup table, etc. with group relationships, such as work, church,school, etc. (such groups may also be custom defined by a user). In thisway, the user may not have to specify individual potential contributorsfor inviting to participate because the user can instead specify a groupof potential contributors (e.g., everyone I work with) for a group gift.Because these relationships may be pre-established in a database, lookuptable, etc. stored in a memory of an electronic device, thoserelationships can be looked up at later times without taxing computingresources to rebuild or re-determine the relationships each time. Thisrepresents a demonstrable technological improvement that allows a userto quickly and easily select, unselect, view, and/or otherwise interactwith potential contributors to invite to contribute to a group gift. Inother words, the embodiments herein provide for a particular manner ofsummarizing information by and on electronic devices, such that theelectronic devices provide specific manners for selecting a limited setof potential contributors relevant to a user, rather than usingconventional methods to determine and select potential contributors.Additionally, these embodiments provide for selecting these contributorsin a same system/app/platform that can process payments. In this way,neither the initiator nor the contributors have to access anotherplatform/system/app for responding to an invitation to contribute.Instead, the same system/app/platform that an initiator uses to selectcontributors and send invitations to contribute may be used to solicitcontributions from the contributors and actually process thecontributions for the group gift. In addition, the samesystem/app/platform may also be used to facilitate purchase of aphysical gift for the receiver of the group gift and/or facilitatetransfer of funds, gift cards, and/or selection of a gift by thereceiver as described herein. These features represent technologicalimprovements over other methods of facilitating group gifts that mayrequire multiple systems, platforms, and/or apps to solicit and collectcontributions from a variety of contributors using mobile electronicdevices.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a system 500 for initiating, collecting,and delivering group gifts in accordance with one or more embodiments ofthe present disclosure. The system 500 includes an initiator electronicdevice(s) 502, payment processing system server(s) 504, a receiverelectronic device 506, physical gift purchase server(s) 508, a pluralityof mobile electronic devices 512 . . . N, a plurality of non-mobileelectronic device(s) 514 . . . N, and one or more cloud components 525.The one or more cloud components 525 may be or may include components ofthe cloud components 225 shown in FIGS. 2-4 and described herein. Thevarious processes described herein may be implemented by more, less,and/or any combination of the devices, components, etc. shown in FIG. 5.Any of the processes or functions described herein may also beimplemented on different devices than those shown in FIG. 5. Forexample, some or all parts of the processes described herein may beimplemented on any of the server(s) 504, 508 and/or the one or morecloud components 525. That is, the one or more cloud components 525 mayfunction similarly to one or more of the servers 504, 508, at least withrespect to the embodiments described herein. Some or all parts of theprocesses described herein may also be implemented on any of theinitiator electronic device 502, the receiver electronic device 506, themobile electronic devices 512 . . . N, and/or the non-mobile electronicdevices 514 . . . N.

In the example of FIG. 5, the initiator electronic device(s) 502, thepayment processing system server(s) 504, the receiver electronic device506, the physical gift purchase server(s) 508, the plurality of mobileelectronic devices 512 . . . N, the plurality of non-mobile electronicdevice(s) 514 . . . N, and the one or more cloud components 525 maycommunicate with one another over the network 506. Communications maybe, for example, a request from the initiator electronic device 502 tothe payment processing system server(s) 504 to initiate a group gift,invitations from the payment processing system server(s) 504 to theplurality of mobile electronic devices 512 . . . N and/or the pluralityof non-mobile electronic device(s) 514 . . . N to contribute to a groupgift, and/or responses to the invitations sent from the plurality ofmobile electronic devices 512 . . . N and/or the plurality of non-mobileelectronic device(s) 514 . . . N to the payment processing systemserver(s) 504. The initiator electronic device(s) 502, the plurality ofmobile electronic devices 512 . . . N, and/or the plurality ofnon-mobile electronic device(s) 514 . . . N may function similarly toand/or may have components similar to the client devices 102, 103, 104of FIG. 1 and/or the client devices 202 a, 202 b, and 202 n of FIG. 2.The payment processing system server(s) 504 and/or the physical giftpurchase server(s) 508 may function similarly to and/or may havecomponents similar to the network servers 106, 107 of FIG. 1 and/or theserver devices 204, 213 (including the network databases 207, 215) ofFIG. 2.

As described further herein, invitations to contribute to a group giftmay be sent from the payment processing system server(s) 504 (and/or theone or more cloud computing components 525) to the plurality of mobileelectronic devices 512 . . . N and/or the plurality of non-mobileelectronic device(s) 514 . . . N. For example, the invitations may be apush notification or a text message to a mobile phone, such as a smartphone. An application (app) installed on the mobile phone may beconfigured to received push notifications that push information relatedto the information to the phone and cause a dialog to appear on adisplay of the mobile phone, such as those shown in and described belowwith respect to FIGS. 7A and 7C. A text message may be sent to a mobilephone that is displayed on a mobile phone, such as those shown in anddescribed below with respect to FIGS. 7B and 7D. In various embodiments,other types of invitations and/or electronic devices may be utilized.For example, a mobile electronic device may be a laptop, tablet, or anyother type of mobile electronic device. An invitation may be sent viaemail, a web messaging service (e.g., iMessage™, WhatsApp™, etc.), orany other mode of communication.

The plurality of mobile electronic devices 512 . . . N and/or theplurality of non-mobile electronic device(s) 514 . . . N may respond tothe invitations to participate in the group gift in accordance with themedium or mode through which the invitation was received. For example,if the invitation was a text message, a user may respond using theirelectronic device with a text message. In another example, if theinvitation is sent as a push notification, the user may respond withtheir electronic device by selecting a dialog option associated with thepush notification. If the invitation is an email, the user may respondby clicking a link in the email or by responding to the email. Asdescribed herein, a response to an invitation may be a single actionperformed by the user, such as a single selection, single text message,or other single response, without having to log in, provide financialinformation, take other steps, etc.

The responses from the plurality of mobile electronic devices 512 . . .N and/or the plurality of non-mobile electronic device(s) 514 . . . Nmay be sent via the network 506 to the payment processing systemserver(s) 504. If a response indicates an approval to contribute to thegroup gift, the payment processing system server(s) 504 can cause fundsto be deducted from an account associated with the device and user whoapproved the participation. If the response indicates a refusal, thepayment processing system server(s) will not deduct any funds, and maynot send any reminders to the device and/or user from which the refusalwas received. Once the time period for contributing to the gift haselapsed/expired, the payment processing system server(s) 504 maycommunicate with the physical gift purchase server(s) 508 to order aphysical gift with the funds contributed to the group gift. The paymentprocessing system server(s) 504, after ordering the physical gift, mayalso send a message to the receiver electronic device 506. The messagemay include, for example, custom content relating to a holiday oroccasion that is the reason for the gift, may include information abouta gift card or other way to electronically redeem or claim a gift sentas part of the group gift. The message may also indicate that aparticular amount of funds have been automatically deposited into anaccount of the receiver, and may include information about the physicalgift purchased. In various embodiments, a physical gift may not beordered, by all the funds contributed to the group gift may betransferred to the receiver's account, given to the receiver as a giftcard, etc.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a process 600 for initiating,collecting, and delivering group gifts in accordance with one or moreembodiments of the present disclosure. The process 600 includesoperations that may be taken, for example, by a computing device such asthe payment processing system server(s) 504 and/or the one or more cloudcomputing components 525 of FIG. 5 to initiate, collect, and deliver agroup gift. In various embodiments, each and every one of the elementsof the process 600 may be performed by components of a paymentprocessing system. In this way, the payment processing system may beused to efficiently solicit contributions to a group gift and processcontributions for the group gift. As described herein, such embodimentsprovide for improved functioning of computerized systems because acontributor to the group gift may contribute to the group gift with asingle action, and an initiator of a group gift may more easily inviteothers to contribute to a group gift.

At an operation 602, a request is received to initiate a group gift froman initiator electronic device, such as the initiator electronicdevice(s) 502 of FIG. 5. The request may include various types ofinformation input by a user into their initiator electronic device. Forexample, the request may include a gift date on which the group giftshould be sent to a receiver of the gift. The gift date may coincidewith a holiday, birthday, last day of work, anniversary, any other dayof note, or may be any day specified by the requestor. The request mayalso specify the type of gift desired to be sent to the receiver (e.g.,type of physical gift, type of gift card, money, rewards points, etc.).The request may also include other parameters for the group gift. Forexample, the request may include specified denominations to include inthe invitations for others to contribute (e.g., the request may specifyto ask potential contributors for $5, $10, $15, or $20, or may give themthe choice between one or more denominations). The request may alsospecify how the invitations should solicit a donation. For example, therequest may specify a preference for text messages, push notifications,and/or emails to solicit contributions, or may specify invitations to beused such as the examples shown in FIGS. 7A-7D. The request may specifythat custom denominations may be contributed, may specify types ofphysical or other gifts as options for the group gift so thatcontributors may vote on a preference for the type of gift, or mayspecify any other type of option for the invitations and/or group gift.The request may also specify an end date for a period of time in whichcontributions may be made, or the end date may be automaticallydetermined based on the gift date specified. For example, the end datemay be automatically determined based on an expected delivery time of aphysical gift, or if no physical gift is to be determined, the end datemay be at or just before the moment that a message with informationabout the gift is sent to the receiver electronic device, such as thegift receiver electronic device 506 of FIG. 5. The request to initiatethe group gift may also include indications identifying a recipient forthe group gift associated with the gift receiver electronic device. Thepayment processing system server, for example, may have stored anassociation between the recipient and the recipient's electronic device,such that the request may only specify the recipient and the recipient'selectronic device is automatically determined based on the association.Similarly, the request may specify or indicate the potentialcontributors to which invitations should be sent, and the electronicdevices to which those invitations may be sent may similarly bedetermined based on associations stored on a memory to which the paymentprocessing system server has access to. The electronic devices may bemobile devices or non-mobile devices. In various embodiments, aninvitation may be sent not to a particular device, but to, for example,an email address, messaging address, or other communication protocolthat does not specify a device. Other communication protocols, such astext messages or push notifications may specify a particular device(e.g., using a phone number, IP address and/or MAC address for a deviceon which an app is installed, etc.).

Accordingly, at an operation 604, based on information indicated in therequest to initiate a group gift, a plurality of electronic devices isdetermined to which invitations are sent to contribute to the groupgift. In various embodiments, different types of devices or differentlyconfigured devices may be determined in order to send different types ofinvitations to. For example, a first type of invitation that allowsresponding with a single action may be sent to mobile devices as a textmessage or push notification as described herein. A second type ofinvitation, such as to an email address, may be sent to mobile ornon-mobile devices that are not already configured or set up by the userto authorize contributions to a group gift. Those invitations may invitea potential contributor to set up an account, install an app, orotherwise configure their electronic devices so that in the future theycan respond to invitations with a single action. In various embodiments,if an account with the payment processing system is already configured,even an email invitation may be responded to with a single action. Forexample, the email invitation may include one or more links that, whenselected, may automatically cause a contribution to the group gift.Accordingly, different types of invitations may be sent to potentialcontributors based on what type of device they have, what is known aboutthe potential contributors (e.g., email address, phone number, appinstalled on phone, etc.), and/or whether the potential contributor isalready known to the payment processing system and has an accountconfigured for single action contributions to group gifts.

At an operation 606, invitations to the electronic devices are sent. Theinvitations are sent according to the type of invitation and what isknown about the potential contributors and their electronic devices asdescribed herein. For example, invitations sent to mobile electronicdevices, such as the mobile electronic devices 512 . . . N of FIG. 5 maybe in the form of a text message and/or a push notification. Asdescribed herein, the push notifications or text messages may prompt auser/potential contributor to respond with a single action whether theuser would like to contribute to the group gift or not. The singleaction may not include other interactions with a mobile device, such asunlocking the mobile device to access push notifications and/or textmessages, selecting a text message or other messaging app to view a textmessage invitation, selecting an email app to access an emailinvitation, opening an email to view an email invitation, etc. Rather,the single action as described herein refers to actions takenspecifically related to contributing (or declining/refusing tocontribute) to a group gift. For example, a single action to contributeto a group gift may not include inputting financial account informationof the contributor and/or recipient of the group gift, as thatinformation may be already known to the payment processing system whenthe group gift invitations are configured by the payment processingsystem based on the request from the initiator of the group gift. Asanother example, the single action to contribute may not include logginginto an account, as prior configuration by the potential contributor mayestablish the electronic device as authorized to make contributions togroup gifts from a known account without logging into an account withthe payment processing system.

At an operation 608, first responses from each of a first subset of theplurality of electronic devices to which invitations were sent, wherethe first responses indicate an approval to contribute to the group giftare received. The first responses may be received from mobile devices,non-mobile devices, or some combination thereof. The response may bebased on a single action of the user, as described herein. The approvalmay include an authorization to deduct from or charge to an accountassociated with a respective one of the first subset of the plurality ofmobile electronic devices. In other words, the responses approving acontribution to the group gift cause funds to deducted from or chargedto an account associated with the user, providing that the user haslinked that account to their mobile device by, for example, previouslyconfiguring and authorizing the mobile device, an app on the mobiledevice, etc. The response to authorize a contribution may also include,for example, an amount of money that should be contributed, apersonalized message to a recipient of the group gift, a preference orvote of the type of gift to send to the recipient, or any other type ofinformation. Any personalized messages from may be incorporated into amessage sent to the gift receiver electronic device detailing the groupgift on the gift date. Personalized messages may include personalizedtext, pictures or videos (including pictures or videos taken by a mobileelectronic device of a contributor), etc.

At an operation 610, second responses are received from each of a secondsubset of the plurality of electronic devices indicating a refusal tocontribute to the group gift. The second responses may be received frommobile devices, non-mobile devices, or some combination thereof.

One or more messages indicating whether users associated with devicesthat sent the first or second responses may be sent to the initiatorelectronic device. In other words, the initiator may be notified whetherparticular users have responded to the invitations, and/or howparticular users responded to the invitations (e.g., whether theyrefused or approved a contribution, how much a user contributed, howparticular users voted to express a preference for type of gift, etc.).In various embodiments, certain information about how users responded tothe invitations may not be provided to the initiator. For example,whether a user approved or refused to contribute may be kept from aninitiator so that the initiator does not know who contributed or not tothe group gift. Similarly, a message sent to the recipient may notindicate who did not contribute to the group gift. The message sent tothe recipient of the group gift may or may not indicate who actually didcontribute to the group gift.

At an operation 612, reminders are sent to a third subset of electronicdevices after a first predetermined amount of time after the invitationsare sent or on a predetermined date indicated in the request to initiatethe group gift. The third subset of electronic devices are associatedwith invitations and users who have not yet responded to the invitationsto contribute to the group gift. In various embodiments, additionalreminders may be sent after another predetermined amount of time or on asecond predetermined date. In various embodiments, the predeterminedamount of time or the predetermined dates used to determine when to sendreminders may be automatically set by the payment processing system,rather than indicated by the initiator in the request to initiate thegroup gift. Additionally, responses (e.g., to approve a contribution tothe group gift, to refuse to contribute to the group gift) may bereceived from electronic devices after one or more reminders are sentout. If received, those electronic devices that were originallycategorized as one of the third subset of devices that have notresponded may then be categorized as one of the first subset (e.g.,those who approved a contribution) or one of the second subset (e.g.,those who refused to contribute). In this way, any subsequent reminderswill not be sent to those devices that have already responded to aninvitation. As discussed below with respect to FIG. 8, users maydelegate another user and/or electronic device to respond to aninvitation to contribute to a group gift on their behalf. In suchscenarios, reminders may be sent to a delegated electronic deviceinstead of or in addition to the device on which the delegation wasspecified. Likewise, if a delegated device responds to an invitation(either with an approval or refusal to contribute), the system mayconsider it as if the delegator device has responded, and therefore notsend either device any further reminders after receiving the response.If a reminder is a final reminder before the group gift is sent to therecipient and/or before a physical gift purchase is initiated, the finalreminder may include an indication that this is the last opportunity toparticipate in contributing to the group gift, and may also include thedate and/or time on which no further contributions may be made to thegroup gift.

At an operation 614, a physical gift purchase is initiated apredetermined amount of time prior the gift date. Funds deducted from orcharged to accounts associated with at least the first subset of theplurality of mobile electronic devices (e.g., those who approved acontribution to the group gift) may be used to purchase the physicalgift. The predetermined amount of time prior the gift date may beautomatically calculated to facilitate delivery of the physical giftpurchase to the receiver of the gift on or before the gift date, andtherefore may be based on an estimated shipping time to deliver thephysical gift. In other words, a physical gift purchase is initiate suchthat there is time for the physical gift to be delivered to therecipient in time for the gift date. The physical gift purchase may beselected automatically to use as much of the funds as possible, or maybe selected to use only a predetermined amount or percentage of thefunds collected for the group gift, so that the rest of the funds may bedelivered as a gift card, funds transfer to an account, or otherwiseprovided to the recipient not as a physical gift (e.g., funds redeemablethrough a rewards network of a payment processing system).

At an operation 616, a message is sent on the gift date to a giftreceiver electronic device. The message may include information about amonetary gift including funds contributed by those who approved of acontribution to the group gift. In various embodiments, the receiverelectronic device may be associated with an individual, group, company,or any other entity. In various embodiments, the message may be sent tomultiple gift receiver devices, such as where the group gift is for agroup of people (e.g., the group gift is distributed amongst more thanone person). The monetary gift may be a remainder of the funds deductedfrom or charged to accounts associated with at least the first subset ofthe plurality of mobile electronic devices that was not used for thephysical gift purchase (if a physical gift purchase was made using thefunds). The message may also include a link to a webpage withinstructions for using the funds or redeeming the funds for a reward,such as airline miles. The webpage may also include physical gifts fromwhich the receiver may choose, and/or may include options fortransferring the funds to an account associated with the receiver. Insome embodiments, the funds may be automatically transferred to anaccount associated with the receiver, and the message may merely informthe receiver/recipient that the funds have been transferred and/or theamount of funds transferred.

In various embodiments, the request to initiate the group gift mayinclude a specified type of occasion and type of physical gift for thephysical gift purchase. The payment processing system may then determinea creative theme to apply to the message sent to the gift receiverelectronic device based at least in part on the type of occasion or thetype of physical gift. In various embodiments, the request may include aspecified type of occasion and does not specify a physical gift forpurchase. However, the type of physical gift may be automaticallyselected by the payment processing system using based at least in parton the type of occasion or other information input as part of therequest to initiate the group gift. For example, a birthday occasiontype may cause the system to purchase a cake for delivery on the giftdate, while an anniversary may cause the system to purchase flowers fordelivery on the gift date. In this way, the system may select a physicalgift for purchase without any user (either the initiator, contributor,or recipient) selecting a type of physical gift for purchase.

The payment processing system may also send, to the initiator electronicdevice and/or the first subset of the plurality of mobile electronicdevices (e.g., the device that approved a contribution to the groupgift), a confirmation message indicating that the physical gift has beendelivered and/or that the message has been sent to the gift receiverelectronic device. In this way, the contributors and initiator receiveconfirmation that the group gift has been delivered.

FIGS. 7A-7D are example user interfaces of a mobile electronic devicefor receiving a single action for contributing to a group gift inaccordance with one or more embodiments of the present disclosure.

A push notification invitation, examples of which are shown in FIGS. 7Aand 7C, may be responded to by selecting a response to a promptpresented in the push notification. Selecting that response mayconstitute a single action. For example, FIG. 7A shows a mobileelectronic device 700 with a graphical user interface (GUI) 702. A pushnotification 704 is displayed on the GUI 702, and the user may selectoptions 706 or 707 as a single action to indicate whether the user wouldlike to contribute to a group gift or not. In FIG. 7C, the GUI 702displays a push notification 712 that allows the user to selectdifferent denomination options 714, 716, 718 or select option 720 thatthey would not like to contribute. In other words, the single action inresponse to the push notification 712 may be to select an amount tocontribute to the group gift.

FIGS. 7B and 7D demonstrate a text message that may appear on the GUI702 for the user to respond to with a single action. In FIG. 7B, theuser may respond with a “Y” or “N” text message to indicate whether theywould like to contribute or no. In the examples of FIGS. 7B and 7D,typing a text into a dialog 710 and sending the text to respond to textmessage 708 and 722 are considered a single action. In FIG. 7D, the usermay respond with “N” if they do not wish to contribute or may respondwith a denomination amount they would like to contribute. These textmessage responses are also considered single actions for purposes ofthis disclosure. In various embodiments, the input of the text messagesmay be done with typing on a keyboard displayed on the GUI or may beinput using voice recognition.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a process 800 for delegatingresponsibility for responding to an invitation to participate in a groupgift in accordance with one or more embodiments of the presentdisclosure. The process 800 includes operations that may be taken, forexample, by a computing device such as the payment processing systemserver(s) 504 and/or the one or more cloud computing components 525 ofFIG. 5 to initiate, collect, and deliver a group gift. In variousembodiments, each and every one of the elements of the process 800 maybe performed by components of a payment processing system. In this way,the payment processing system may be used to efficiently solicitcontributions to a group gift and process contributions for the groupgift, even where certain users have delegated responsibility forresponding to invitations to participate. As described herein, suchembodiments provide for improved functioning of computerized systemsbecause a contributor to the group gift may contribute to the group giftwith a single action, and an initiator of a group gift may more easilyinvite others to contribute to a group gift.

At an operation 802, a delegation of responsibility is received from anelectronic device for responding to an invitation to contribute to agroup gift. The delegation may represent an authorization from a firstuser to a second user to respond to the invitation. The second user maybe associated with a second electronic device, so the system maydetermine, at an operation 804 based on the delegation, a delegatedmobile electronic device associated with the second user to send aninvitation to. The delegated mobile electronic device may or may nothave been a part of the original electronic devices to which theinvitations to contribute to the group gift were originally sent.

At an operation 806, an invitation to contribute to the group gift issent to the delegated mobile electronic device. At an operation 808, aresponse is from the delegated mobile electronic device to contribute ornot contribute to the group gift. When the responsibility for respondingto the invitation is delegated, a response approving a contribution froma delegated device may cause funds to be deducted from or charged to anaccount associated with the first user (e.g., the delegator) and/or thefirst electronic device (e.g., device from which the delegation ofresponsibility for responding was received). In this way, when someonedelegates the responsibility to respond, their account is still deductedfrom even if another user/person is the one responding to theinvitation.

In various embodiments, the payment processing system may alsofacilitate sending of thank you notes for the group gift. The receiverof the gift may cause thank you messages to be sent to each person whocontributed to the group gift. In various embodiments, the messages maybe automatically personalized to the contributor, or may be customizedby the receiver of the group gift to personalize the thank you messages.Since the payment processing system already knows the identities anddevices associated with all of the contributors to a group gift, thankyou messages to each of those contributors may be facilitated.

In various embodiments, because a payment processing system is alreadyused, anyone who has a payment method or account (e.g., bank account,credit card, etc.) with that payment processing system may be easilyincorporated into a group gift, either as an initiator, contributor,and/or receiver. For example, someone with a credit card that is activeand registered for use with the payment processing system may alreadyhave information known to the payment processing system, such as theiremail address. Accordingly, for example, when an initiator of a groupgift is specifying potential contributors and/or recipients for a groupgift, the initiator may only have to enter some of the information thatis already known by the payment processing system, such as an emailaddress, name, workplace, or some other piece of known information.Since those persons and their financial accounts are already known tothe payment processing system, those persons may never have toseparately input information related to their financial accounts, creditcards, etc. In other words, once the payment processing systemidentifies a user (to be a contributor, recipient, etc.), any funds tocontribute or received by a recipient may be automatically charged to,deducted from, and/or credited to a known account. Such functionalityprovides an efficient and easy process for initiating, collecting, anddelivering group gifts as described herein throughout.

At least some aspects of the present disclosure will now be describedwith reference to the following numbered clauses.

Clause 1. A method comprising: receiving, by one or more processors thatare each part of a payment processing system, a request to initiate agroup gift from an initiator electronic device, wherein the requestcomprises a gift date on which the group gift should be sent to areceiver of the gift; determining, by the one or more processors, aplurality of mobile electronic devices to send a first type ofinvitations to contribute to the group gift and determining a pluralityof non-mobile electronic devices to send a second type of invitations tocontribute to the group gift; sending, by the one or more processors,the first type of invitations to the plurality of mobile electronicdevices and the second type of invitations to the non-mobile electronicdevices, wherein each of the first type of invitations comprises a pushnotification to an application (app) on each of the plurality of mobileelectronic devices or a text message to each of the plurality of mobileelectronic devices, and further wherein the push notification or textmessage of each of the first type of invitations prompts a user torespond with a single action whether the user would like to contributeor not; receiving, by the one or more processors, a first response fromeach of a first subset of the plurality of mobile electronic devicesindicating an approval to contribute to the group gift, wherein theapproval comprises an authorization to deduct from or charge to anaccount associated with a respective one of the first subset of theplurality of mobile electronic devices; receiving, by the one or moreprocessors, a second response from each of a second subset of theplurality of mobile electronic devices indicating a refusal tocontribute to the group gift; sending, by the one or more processors,after a first predetermined amount of time after the invitations aresent or on a predetermined date indicated in the request to initiate thegroup gift, a reminder to each of a third subset of the plurality ofmobile electronic devices that have not responded to the first type ofinvitations; initiating, by the one or more processors, a secondpredetermined amount of time prior the gift date, a physical giftpurchase as part of the group gift using funds deducted from or chargedto accounts associated with at least the first subset of the pluralityof mobile electronic devices, wherein the second predetermined amount oftime is configured to facilitate delivery of the physical gift purchaseto the receiver of the gift on or before the gift date; and sending, bythe one or more processors, on the gift date, a message to a giftreceiver electronic device comprising information about a monetary gift,wherein the monetary gift is a remainder of the funds deducted from orcharged to accounts associated with at least the first subset of theplurality of mobile electronic devices that was not used for thephysical gift purchase.Clause 2. The method of clause 1, wherein the request to initiate thegroup gift further comprises a first indication identifying a recipientfor the group gift associated with the gift receiver electronic device,and wherein the request to initiate the group gift further comprises atleast one second indication identifying a plurality of potentialcontributors for the group gift associated with the plurality of mobileelectronic devices and the plurality of non-mobile devices.Clause 3. The method of clause 1, wherein the first type of invitationseach comprise a push notification, the first response from each of thefirst subset of the plurality of mobile electronic devices comprises aresponse to a prompt presented in the push notification, and the singleaction comprises a selection of an amount to contribute to the groupgift.Clause 4. The method of clause 1, wherein the first type of invitationseach comprise a text message, the first response from each of the firstsubset of the plurality of mobile electronic devices comprises aresponse to a prompt presented in the text message, and the singleaction comprises a return text message indicating an amount tocontribute to the group gift.Clause 5. The method of clause 1, further comprising receiving, by theone or more processors, the first response from at least one of thethird subset of the plurality of mobile electronic devices after thesending of the reminder.Clause 6. The method of clause 5, further comprising switching, by theone or more processors, the at least one of the third subset of theplurality of mobile electronic devices from which the first response wasreceived from the third subset to the first subset before the initiatingof the physical gift purchase and the sending of the message to the giftreceiver electronic device.Clause 7. The method of clause 1, further comprising receiving, by theone or more processors, the second response from at least one of thethird subset of the plurality of mobile electronic devices after thesending of the reminder.Clause 8. The method of clause 7, further comprising: switching, by theone or more processors, the at least one of the third subset of theplurality of mobile electronic devices from which the second responsewas received from the third subset to the second subset before theinitiating of the physical gift purchase and the sending of the messageto the gift receiver electronic device; and sending, by the one or moreprocessors, a subsequent reminder to each of the third plurality ofmobile electronic devices to contribute to the group gift after theswitching, such that the subsequent reminder is not sent to the at leastone of the third subset of the plurality of mobile electronic devicesfrom which the second response was received.Clause 9. The method of clause 8, wherein the subsequent remindercomprises at least one of an indication that this is a final reminder tocontribute to the group gift or an indication of the latest date onwhich a contribution to the group gift may be made.Clause 10. The method of clause 1, further comprising determining thesecond predetermined amount of time based on an estimated shipping timeto deliver the physical gift.Clause 11. The method of clause 1, wherein the request to initiate thegroup gift comprises a type of occasion and a type of physical gift forthe physical gift purchase, and wherein the method further comprisesdetermining, by the one or more processors, a creative theme to apply tothe message sent to the gift receiver electronic device based at leastin part on the type of occasion and the type of physical gift.Clause 12. A system comprising: a memory; at least one processor coupledto the memory, the processor configured to: receive a request toinitiate a group gift from an initiator electronic device, wherein therequest comprises a gift date on which the group gift should be sent toa receiver of the gift; determine a plurality of mobile electronicdevices to send invitations to contribute to the group gift; send theinvitations to the plurality of mobile electronic devices, wherein eachof the invitations comprises a push notification to an application (app)on each of the plurality of mobile electronic devices or a text messageto each of the plurality of mobile electronic devices; receive a firstresponse from each of a first subset of the plurality of mobileelectronic devices indicating an approval to contribute to the groupgift, wherein the first response is sent as a result of a single actionby each user of the first subset of the plurality of mobile electronicdevices; receive a second response from each of a second subset of theplurality of mobile electronic devices indicating a refusal tocontribute to the group gift; send, after a first predetermined amountof time after the invitations are sent or on a predetermined dateindicated in the request to initiate the group gift, a reminder to eachof a third subset of the plurality of mobile electronic devices thathave not responded to the invitations; initiate, a second predeterminedamount of time prior to the gift date, a physical gift purchase as partof the group gift using funds deducted from or charged to accountsassociated with at least the first subset of the plurality of mobileelectronic devices, wherein the second predetermined amount of time isconfigured to facilitate delivery of the physical gift purchase to thereceiver of the gift on or before the gift date; and send, on the giftdate, a message to a gift receiver electronic device comprisinginformation about a monetary gift, wherein the monetary gift is aremainder of the funds deducted from or charged to accounts associatedwith at least the first subset of the plurality of mobile electronicdevices that was not used for the physical gift purchase.Clause 13. The system of clause 12, wherein the processor is furtherconfigured to: receive, along with the first response from each of thefirst subset of the plurality of mobile electronic devices, apersonalized message to a recipient of the group gift; and incorporatingthe personalized message from each of the first subset of the pluralityof mobile electronic devices into the message sent to the gift receiverelectronic device.Clause 14. The system of clause 12, wherein the physical gift is a firstphysical gift, and further wherein the message to the gift receiverelectronic device comprises a hyperlink which, when selected by a user,causes the gift receiver electronic device to navigate to a webpage orapplication that receives a selection of an available gift card or asecond physical gift.Clause 15. The system of clause 14, wherein at least one of theavailable gift card and the second physical gift are available through apayment processing entity's reward network.Clause 16. A non-transitory computer readable medium having instructionsstored thereon that, upon execution by a computing device, cause thecomputing device to perform operations comprising: receiving a requestto initiate a group gift from an initiator electronic device, whereinthe request comprises a gift date on which the group gift should be sentto a receiver of the gift; determining a plurality of mobile electronicdevices to send invitations to contribute to the group gift; sending theinvitations to the plurality of mobile electronic devices, wherein eachof the invitations comprises a push notification to an application (app)on each of the plurality of mobile electronic devices or a text messageto each of the plurality of mobile electronic devices; receiving a firstresponse from each of a first subset of the plurality of mobileelectronic devices indicating an approval to contribute to the groupgift; receiving a second response from each of a second subset of theplurality of mobile electronic devices indicating a refusal tocontribute to the group gift; sending, after a first predeterminedamount of time after the invitations are sent or on a predetermined dateindicated in the request to initiate the group gift, a reminder to eachof a third subset of the plurality of mobile electronic devices thathave not responded to the invitations; initiating, a secondpredetermined amount of time prior to the gift date, a physical giftpurchase as part of the group gift using funds deducted from or chargedto accounts associated with at least the first subset of the pluralityof mobile electronic devices, wherein the second predetermined amount oftime is configured to facilitate delivery of the physical gift purchaseto the receiver of the gift on or before the gift date; and sending, onthe gift date, a message to a gift receiver electronic device comprisinginformation about a monetary gift, wherein the monetary gift is aremainder of the funds deducted from or charged to accounts associatedwith at least the first subset of the plurality of mobile electronicdevices that was not used for the physical gift purchase.Clause 17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of clause 16,wherein the computing device is further configured to send, to theinitiator electronic device and the first subset of the plurality ofmobile electronic devices a confirmation message indicating that thephysical gift has been delivered and that the message has been sent tothe gift receiver electronic device.Clause 18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of clause 16,wherein the computing device is further configured to receive, from afirst mobile electronic device of the plurality of mobile electronicdevices, a delegation of responsibility for responding to a firstinvitation of the invitations received by the first mobile electronicdevice, wherein the delegation represents an authorization from a firstuser to a second user to respond to the invitation.Clause 19. The non-transitory computer readable medium of clause 18,wherein the computing device is further configured to: determine, basedon the delegation, a delegated mobile electronic device associated withthe second user, wherein the delegated mobile electronic device was notpart of the plurality of mobile electronic devices to which theinvitations were originally sent; and send, an invitation to contributeto the group gift to the delegated mobile electronic device.Clause 20. The non-transitory computer readable medium of clause 19,wherein the computing device is further configured to: receive the firstresponse from the delegated mobile electronic device; and for the groupgift, deduct funds from or charge to an account associated with thefirst electronic device of the first user.

Any publications cited throughout this document are hereby incorporatedby reference in their entirety. While one or more embodiments of thepresent disclosure have been described, it is understood that theseembodiments are illustrative only, and not restrictive, and that manymodifications may become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art,including that various embodiments of the inventive methodologies, theinventive systems/platforms, and the inventive devices described hereincan be utilized in any combination with each other. Further still, thevarious steps may be carried out in any desired order (and any desiredsteps may be added and/or any desired steps may be eliminated).

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: receiving, by one or moreprocessors, a request to initiate a group gift from an initiatorelectronic device, wherein the request indicates a recipient of thegift; determining, by the one or more processors, a plurality ofelectronic devices to send a first type of invitations and a second typeof invitations to in order to contribute to the group gift comprising:determining, based on a database having identifying informationassociated with the plurality of electronic devices, that a firstportion of the plurality of electronic devices have previously installedan application (app) associated with the payment processing system; anddetermining, based on the database, that a second portion of theplurality of electronic devices do not have the app installed thereon;sending, by the one or more processors, the first type of invitations tothe first portion of the plurality of electronic devices, wherein eachof the first type of invitations comprises a first message configured tobe received and displayed via the app on each of the first portion ofthe plurality of electronic devices, and further wherein the firstmessage is configured to be interacted with by a first user via a firstgraphical user interface element to contribute to the group gift or not;sending the second type of invitations to the second portion of theplurality of electronic devices, wherein each of the second type ofinvitations comprises a second message configured to be received anddisplayed by each of the second portion of the plurality of electronicdevices without having the app installed thereon, and further whereinthe second message is configured to be interacted with by a second uservia a second graphical user interface element to contribute to the groupgift or not; receiving, by the one or more processors, a response fromeach of a first subset of the plurality of electronic devices indicatingeach contribution to the group gift; and initiating, by the one or moreprocessors, a gift purchase as part of the group gift using fundsdeducted from or charged to accounts associated with at least the subsetof the plurality of electronic devices.
 2. The method of claim 1,wherein the request to initiate the group gift further comprises anindication identifying a plurality of potential contributors for thegroup gift associated with the plurality of electronic devices.
 3. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the first portion of the plurality ofelectronic devices are mobile electronic devices, the first type ofinvitations each comprise a push notification, and the response from atleast one of the subset of the plurality of electronic devices comprisesa response to a prompt presented in the push notification.
 4. The methodof claim 3, wherein the response to the prompt comprises selecting anoption presented in the first graphical user interface element.
 5. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the second portion of the plurality ofelectronic devices are mobile electronic devices, the second type ofinvitations each comprise a text message, and the response from at leastone of the subset of the plurality of electronic devices comprises aresponse to a prompt presented in the text message.
 6. The method ofclaim 5, wherein the response to the prompt is a return text message. 7.The method of claim 1, wherein the second type of invitations eachcomprise an email message and the response from at least one of thesubset of the plurality of electronic devices comprises a response to aprompt presented in the email message.
 8. The method of claim 7, whereinthe response to the prompt is a return email message.
 9. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the database further indicates which of the pluralityof electronic devices is a mobile electronic device and which of theplurality of electronic devices is a non-mobile electronic device. 10.The method of claim 1, wherein the gift purchase is a physical gift.further comprising determining the second predetermined amount of timebased on an estimated shipping time to deliver the physical gift. 11.The method of claim 10, wherein the request to initiate the group giftspecifies a date on which the recipient should receive the group gift.12. The method of claim 11, wherein the initiating of the gift purchaseoccurs a predetermined amount of time prior to the date based on anestimated shipping time to deliver the physical gift.
 13. A systemcomprising: a memory; at least one processor coupled to the memory, theprocessor configured to: receive a request to initiate a group gift froman initiator electronic device, wherein the request comprises indicatesa receiver of the gift; determine a plurality of mobile electronicdevices to send a first type of invitations and a second type ofinvitations to in order to contribute to the group gift comprising:determine, based on a database having identifying information associatedwith the plurality of mobile electronic devices, that a first portion ofthe plurality of mobile electronic devices have previously installed anapplication (app) associated with a payment processing system andconfigured to receive a push notification, and determine, based on thedatabase, that a second portion of the plurality of mobile electronicdevices do not have the app installed thereon; send the first type ofinvitations to the first portion of the plurality of mobile electronicdevices, wherein each of the first type of invitations comprises a pushnotification to the app on each of the first portion of the plurality ofmobile electronic devices, and further wherein the push notificationcomprises a first graphical user interface element programmed to allow afirst user to contribute or not; send the second type of invitations tothe second portion of the plurality of mobile electronic devices,wherein each of the second type of invitations comprises a text messageto each of the second portion of the plurality of mobile electronicdevices, and further wherein the text message comprises a secondgraphical user interface element programmed to allow a second user tocontribute or not; receive a first response from each of a subset of theplurality of mobile electronic devices indicating each contribution tothe group gift; and initiate a gift purchase as part of the group giftusing funds deducted from or charged to accounts associated with atleast the subset of the plurality of mobile electronic devices.
 14. Thesystem of claim 13, wherein the processor is further configured to:receive, along with the response from each of the subset of theplurality of mobile electronic devices, a personalized message to arecipient of the group gift; and incorporating the personalized messagefrom each of the subset of the plurality of mobile electronic devicesinto message sent to a gift receiver electronic device.
 15. The systemof claim 13, further comprising sending a message to a gift receiverelectronic device comprising a hyperlink which, when selected by a user,causes the gift receiver electronic device to navigate to a webpage orapplication that receives a selection of an available gift card or aphysical gift.
 16. The system of claim 15, wherein at least one of theavailable gift card and the second physical gift are available through apayment processing entity's reward network.
 17. A non-transitorycomputer readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, uponexecution by a computing device, cause the computing device to performoperations comprising: receiving a request to initiate a group gift froman initiator electronic device, wherein the request indicates a receiverof the group gift; determining a plurality of electronic devices to senda first type of invitations and a second type of invitations to in orderto contribute to the group gift comprising: determining, based on adatabase having identifying information associated with the plurality ofelectronic devices, that a first portion of the plurality of electronicdevices are mobile electronic devices, and determining, based on thedatabase, that a second portion of the plurality of electronic devicesare non-mobile electronic devices; sending the first type of invitationsto the first portion of the plurality of electronic devices, whereineach of the first type of invitations comprises a first messageconfigured to be received and displayed on the mobile electronicdevices, and further wherein the first message is configured to beinteracted with by a first user via a first graphical user interfaceelement to contribute to the group gift or not; sending the second typeof invitations to the second portion of the plurality of electronicdevices, wherein each of the second type of invitations comprises asecond message configured to be received and displayed on the non-mobileelectronic devices, and further wherein the second message is configuredto be interacted with by a second user via a second graphical userinterface element to contribute to the group gift or not; receiving afirst response from each of a subset of the plurality of electronicdevices indicating each contribution to the group gift; and initiating agift purchase as part of the group gift using funds deducted from orcharged to accounts associated with at least the subset of the pluralityof electronic devices.
 18. The non-transitory computer readable mediumof claim 17, wherein the computing device is further configured to send,to the initiator electronic device and the first subset of the pluralityof mobile electronic devices a confirmation message indicating that thegift has been delivered to the recipient.
 19. The non-transitorycomputer readable medium of claim 17, wherein the computing device isfurther configured to receive, from a first electronic device of theplurality of electronic devices, a delegation of responsibility forresponding to a first invitation, wherein the delegation represents anauthorization from a first user to a second user to respond to theinvitation.
 20. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 19,wherein the computing device is further configured to: determine, basedon the delegation, a delegated electronic device associated with thesecond user, wherein the delegated electronic device was not part of theplurality of electronic devices to which the invitations were originallysent; send, a second invitation to contribute to the group gift to thedelegated electronic device; receive a response from the delegatedelectronic device; and for the group gift, deduct funds from or chargeto an account associated with the first electronic device of the firstuser.